Bizarre USB port issue

Hi all,

Since the hard drive got replaced on my laptop about a year ago, I've only had one working USB port on my laptop. This hasn't been an issue, as I've coped by using a USB splitter. Unfortunately, my laptop has recently started to behave differently depending on what I plug into the splitter.

For example, speakers always work when plugged into the splitter, as does my Numark Mixtrack Pro II DJ controller. However, I can't get any mouses to work. My laptop also doesn't detect my phone when plugged into the splitter.

I've tried removing the splitter and plugging a mouse/ phone directly into my laptop and it still doesn't work, so the problem clearly isn't the splitter. I've tried reinstalling the USB driver things in device manager, but I'm still having the same issue.

Wtf is going on? Running Windows 7 Home Premium 32bit, if that's relevant.

I would suspect that the USB port is unable to supply the power required by some of the devices. Are you using a powered hub ("splitter")? There may have been some damage to your computer during the hard disk change that has cause this and the failure of the other USB ports.

Welcome to the forum.